Thursday, August 31, 2017

Habitual Offender....#MFRW Authors #35

*checks watch*

How much time do we have for this?  LOL....

Again, I'm not sure if this pertains to writing or life, so I'll do both.

*Looks around*
The one bad habit I'm *allowed* to keep is biting my fingernails.

There.  I said it.

Can I also keep my 1/2 shot of vodka in a cup of Kool-Aid while fixing dinner habit?

The one I'm diligently working on is breaking my carb addiction.  My favorite go-to lunch if we're home is pasta with pesto.  I think this may have contributed to my testiness with my older granddaughter at the beginning of this month.  It's hard to battle your cravings and a headstrong teenager in the same week, lol.

I also have a bad habit of unintentionally 'offending' some of my friends.  This is when our views on FB over Current Events don't exactly match up.  It usually goes like this:

I see post after post which I don't agree with, so I keep scrolling.

Later that evening, I find a mild one which lines up with my personal opinion and share it.  This is usually around midnight, but it could even happen in the middle of the day.  I log off and go about my business.

I log back in an hour or so later to find I've managed to 'offend' the majority of my friends, who then feel it is their obligation to take me to task.  My 'friend count' either drops or the thread is so out of control I feel compelled to delete it.

I then bite my tongue until the 'hot button' issue settles down and my FB feed returns to *normal*.

Sometimes this happens on my blog also, as the Great Christmas Lyric Scandal of 2007 showed me.

Okay, enough about that.

*flexes fingers*

Now, as to my writing.....I used to have the following bad habits:
-Adverbs (before I learned they were a no-no)
-Head Hopping (this before I knew the *rules* had changed....hey, I learned from the best!)
-Using certain words over and over....and then replacing them with more tired ones...(that, which, so, as, now, when...also beginning a sentence with 'And' or 'But'.)

Now my bad habit is procrastination.
-Short, to the point sex scenes (but is that really a bad thing?  LOL!)
-Using the same name over and over (Last check, I had 4 'Brians'....thankfully, one of them told me his name was 'Zachary Brian', so he became 'Zach'.)
-Not using enough description or using too many nicknames.  In one of my latest short story effort, I used complicated names and in some instances, shortened them.  I confused at least two beta readers who don't read that genre.....but the ones who DO read it had no issue!  So????)

If you ask my crit partners, they could probably point out more....

Want to know others' bad habits?  Click here.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

I feel your pain on the offending friends thing. I would constantly be offending the majority of my friends if I hadn't made a hard and fast rule to never share my personal opinions about politics religion or current events on social media. No matter how much I may want to, I don't let myself do it because I have good friends on both sides of almost every issue, and I don't completely agree with any of them. LOL. Enjoyed your post.

Helen Henderson said...

smiled at the replicant names. Remember a story I critiqued that had three Johns, as well as James, Jamie, Jacob, and a Jake. All in the same family. Couldn't even read a paragraph without tripping over our tongues. I seem to tend toward "a" words and ones that end in either "a" or "n." I have to use a spreadsheet to spot them, especially in a series.

I say keep the kool aid. :)

Linda McLaughlin said...

I avoid FB scandals mainly by avoiding FB. This has been a particularly contentious year. And that's enough said about that.

Learning not to head hop takes time and patience. I think most of us start out head hopping and some never stop, including some very successful authors.

I can't help wondering about the Great Christmas Lyric Scandal of 2007. Hope you'll share that later in the year!

Unknown said...

Lol, I started a spread sheet with character names so I don't reuse them. As to Facebook posts - it constantly amazes me that everyone else is allowed to share their opinion, in many forms, in many posts, over and over, ad infinitum, but let me say one teensy thing to the contrary and all hell breaks lose. How come their opinion is more important than mine? Grrrr. I now refuse to post on anything non-family related, no matter how much I want to.

Alina K. Field said...

Yes, I've tried to keep political stuff from my Facebook posts and unfollowed all the verbal bomb throwers!

Meka James said...

LOL on the name thing. In my first book I had a few characters that all started with M. Not the same name, but same letter, so just as bad. LOL

I'm still learning the writing rules like the adverb thing. Head hopping as well. I did it in my first book, but I did at least put in indicators of a change, that helps right? LOL Ha, on the sex scenes. As I tackle my first erotic romance I'll have more than my previous stories so this should be fun. LOL

Kenzie Michaels said...

@Sherry and Alina: You'd think I'd have learned the 1st time I realized on FB it is 'We can be friends but don't you dare disagree with me politically or on social issues'.

@Robin: I soooooooo agree with you! I don't get why people can't agree to disagree anymore. It's become 'I can't believe you don't agree with me; I'm right and you're wrong. If you don't see things my way, then we're enemies'. People have forgotten we don't have to see eye to eye on everything, and that we can still be civil to each other!

Kenzie Michaels said...

@Helen and Meka: It took me a long time to break the adverb habit! In my Chosen series, I first had all of the alien siblings names begin with the same letter (because I know several families who do this!), but it confused my beta readers too much.

@Linda: The Great Christmas Lyric Scandal of 2007 was when I dared quote Adam Sandler's Hannakah Song, and those who were reading my blog at the time thought I was being anti-semetic and racist. I had emails demanding I take them down, and one person was threatened with non-readership of HER blog if I didn't take it down! (She'd 'sponsored' me and got me started; I guess one of her readers was so upset over what was on MY OWN BLOG that she threatened to stop reading anyone associated with me.) I did take it down, since I'd only been blogging for 3 months, and didn't want to lose what readers I had, but I fumed over it for DAYS! Why couldn't I post lyrics that played on PUBLIC RADIO? Made no sense. Eventually everyone calmed down, and several months later the blogger who'd gotten me started apologized for caving to pressure.